Mötesplats Rydberg Easter Special, April 4:

“The Development of Quantum Error Correction”

Lecture by Professor Peter Shor,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.

Hybrid meeting

Please feel very welcome to join us on site in the Rydberg lecture hall at 15.15.
Fika (coffee & cookie) is served from 15.00.
You can also join Mötesplats Rydberg online via the meeting tool Zoom:

https://lu-se.zoom.us/j/910953381

Abstract

Shortly after quantum mechanics was first formulated around 1930, the
strangeness of the theory became evident. It took over 50 years,
however, for people to realize just how pervasive its strangeness was.

Now, we know that information theory, the theory of computation, and the
theory of cryptography all change substantially when we account for
quantum mechanics. This strangeness can be used to accomplish tasks with
quantum information processing that are not possible classically.
One example—the one that really drew attention to this phenomenon—was my
discovery that quantum computers can factor large numbers into primes in
manageable time frames, something that digital computers would take an
inordinate amount of time to do.

The rapid factorization is only one example of the many strange impacts
of quantum mechanics. We have discovered that the theory of information
transmission changes substantially when information is transmitted over
quantum channels rather than classical ones, as well as the existence of
cryptographic protocols that use quantum information to perform tasks
that are impossible classically.

I will discuss the factoring of primes and survey other discoveries in
quantum computing—and offer recollections of my role in them.